Five of the worst tackles in football history

This week saw Ronaldinho get hit by one of the worst tackles ever seen – the Brazil star somehow escaped unhurt, his opponent didn’t even get booked, the Brazil star missed the resulting penalty and GMF got thinking.

A fair amount of social media debate took place over whether it was the worst ever tackle and you can appreciate this provoked a range of responses.

It even provoked some into providing examples of more bone crunching challenges received by the Brazilian star.

So, obviously, GMF decided to pick out five of the most despicable, horrifying, brutal and X-rated fouls we could find.

Here they are:

Graeme Souness

The former Liverpool and Rangers midfielder was never one to take prisoners when he was playing but this challenge was taking the biscuit.

Souness actually had the ball before delivering his judgement on the opponent and for some reason thought pointing to a hole in his sock would help his case. Watch it above.

Paolo Guerrero

The Peruvian was tipped for big things when he came through the ranks at Bayern Munich but never quite lived up to the hype. Perhaps that frustration had been building for a long time and erupted into mindless rage.

GMF can’t think of other explanations as to why he decided to assault Stuttgart goalkeeper Sven Ulreich while playing for Hamburg. Watch it here.

Benjamin Massing

The Cameroon defender was obviously so desperate for his side to hang on to their 1-0 lead against defending champions Argentina in the opening game of the 1990 World Cup, he decided it was necessary to flatten Claudio Caniggia.

Argentina were desperate for an equaliser and the long-haired forward managed to evade two previous attempts to hack him down but he had only just kept his balance when Massing’s intervention came. Caniggia was splayed on the floor as the referee showed his assailant a red card and we imagine he felt this one for some time afterwards. See it here.

Georges Santos

One of the most infamous moments from the ‘Battle of Bramall Lane’, Sheffield United substitute Santos’ challenge on West Brom’s Andy Johnson was horrendous and rightly earned him a red card. It was the second sending off for the Blades in a game that was eventually abandoned after red cards and injuries forced them down to seven men. Take a look here.

Roy Keane

The former Manchester United captain made the tackle that ended Alf-Inge Haaland’s career famous for admitting in his autobiography that he deliberately meant to hurt the Norwegian defender in retaliation for a spat between the two from years earlier when Keane suffered a serious knee injury.

The admission brought a hefty fine and ban from the FA but many didn’t need confirmation from Keane to suspect he may have had a touch of intent in there. See for yourself here.

What do you think of the challenges above? What are the worst challenges you have seen in football? Leave a comment below to let us know…

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